


a fool for sacrifice

by ivyclub



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Demon Mark Lee, Fluff, Human Suh Youngho | Johnny, breathe too hard and youll miss the hyuckil, demon mark doing his little demon things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27317443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivyclub/pseuds/ivyclub
Summary: Why his own friends dared him to summon a demon was beyond him. Pressingly, he is also not a witch or anyone who possesses magical powers of any sort.
Relationships: Mark Lee & Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 5
Kudos: 60





	a fool for sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> happy halloween!! this was originally part of the vamp johnny verse but i bunged it up lol pls summon your baby demons responsibly
> 
> title from coming down by halsey

There's a set of billowy white curtains that flutter around the left wall; even the slightest of winds will send the stitched chiffon across the room and into Johnny's face. Bookshelves line the wall just adjacent to the window, and unluckily, the books he needs sit near the corner where the onslaught of dusty fabric is the worst.

It's one of three specialty bookshops that was recommended by Hyuck, and cross checked by Google and a very brief visit onto local witchtok. Why he was consulting witchtok of all places he couldn't be bothered to elaborate, but it did involve a two A.M dare that Johnny will not back down from.

Pause. Why his own friends dared him to summon a demon was beyond him. What he can curse is his inability to give up. He's no coward, and he's no quitter.

Pressingly, he is also not a witch or anyone who possesses magical powers of any sort. Hyuck is, who gave him the stupid dare anyway just to see him struggle, and Taeyong is. He's 82% sure Taeil is a seer because he might've mentioned it once in all the years Johnny has known him, and his predictions are too accurate to seem coincidental, but he'll get two of three wrong while the other one is spot on. Uncanny.

By the third time the curtains slap into his face, Johnny is beyond frustrated at trying to look up the shelves to find this one book that was insisted upon by Hyuck himself. He asked Taeyong about the book, who only waved his hand and deferred to Hyuck’s opinion- the first sign that maybe he shouldn’t have done this.

“Why do I need this one specifically? Can’t I just get any other summoning book?” Johnny asked Hyuck before he left.

“I know you’re a human, but that really has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say ever. In my whole life. Go,” Hyuck replied, shoving Johnny out the door.

That leads to right now: Johnny, straight huffing fabric in search for this book. Yes it was a dumb question, but summoning spells are supposedly common so why would it be so difficult to have to get this one? Donghyuck knows, and he wants Johnny to succeed too for the first time in the several years Johnny has known him, though he doesn't know why he's working so hard for it to work.

One of the workers very worriedly asks if he requires assistance, which Johnny turns down quickly. He spots a familiar looking binding- just dark brown laid over brown in an intricate pattern; boring and common- and grabs it before the curtains can get to him again. There isn’t even a title on the front, only as the headings on some of the pages inside the book, while the cover is decorated in the same pattern along the spine. Johnny compares it to the photo Hyuck sent him on his phone. A witch has a phone and is forcing Johnny, a non-magic-user, to summon someone. It really doesn’t get any better than this.

The person checking him out doesn’t give him a weird look for buying the book, they most definitely give him a weird look because they can sense something is up. Johnny hopes that carrying it around isn’t some sort of bad omen, especially since he has no way of protecting himself if something does happen. He can’t even pray because he’s holding a whole demon book, can he.

No strange incidents befall him as he goes back to the apartment, clutching the book like he would some pearls and hoping no one else can sense the tomfoolery that will surely happen. He's unexplainably breathless when he opens the door and comes eye to eye with Hyuck, who smiles knowingly.

"Did you get it?" Johnny tosses the book into Hyuck's unopened arms and toes off his shoes.

"I hope you're not having me summon some harbinger of death because I'm gonna pin it on you, and my first wish is gonna be your dying."

"Okay Light Yagami," Hyuck throws back, flipping through the pages. He hums as he skims, walking back into the apartment and flopping onto the couch. It's a mirror image of the first time Johnny met Hyuck, who was lounging on Taeil's couch in the same manner but with a more impish look on his face. It's an omen, it has to be.

Johnny is too busy cleansing himself of negative energies before going into his room to pay attention to whatever Hyuck is speaking to himself about. If there is going to be a demon attached to him, he would rather none of the bad demon feelings get caught while he's asleep.

"Are you listening to me?" Hyuck snaps.

"Absolutely not."

"Fair enough." Hyuck pushes the book back into Johnny's hands. "As much as I want you to fail because it’ll be so funny, I'd rather you didn't demolish the apartment so... If you need stuff, come to my room. Or get it yourself, I don't care."

With a sigh, Johnny takes a seat at the kitchen bar and skims the pages. Everything looks printed at first glance until he stops on a random page and looks closer at the neat cursive handwritten across the paper. That must've taken forever. He tries to remind himself to store the book properly, now knowing someone toiled over it.

A little over three-quarters of the way into the book, the text stops, and Johnny flips through blank page after blank page with a faintly blue symbol marked into the center of them. Notes pages? What do witches need to take notes for?

He shuts the book, choosing to ask Hyuck about it later. He just wants to nap right now.

The next few days consist solely of Johnny opening the book to a random page, reading through it, and then pretending he didn’t read anything at all. He finds out the blank pages in the back are summoning papers which are meant to be torn out. The blue mark in the center is a seal to keep the sumonees limited to one. Imagine if Johnny was able to summon two demons at once. Does that mean he’d need to give his soul in halves?

“Yeah, _imagine_ ,” Hyuck had said. “I’m trying to increase your chances of getting just the one.”

“Then do I need to do it on a certain day to ‘increase my chances’? Like a full moon or something?”

“Are demons werewolves, Johnny?”

He also finds out that the materials needed for the summoning spell aren’t all that elusive either- it’s just some candles and chalk at it’s bare bones. Hyuck just assumed he didn’t have black chalk, which he doesn’t, or know how to write roman numerals, which he does. Not. Not really- he knows up to three and he knows five. Probably.

It’s really a random Thursday when he decides it’s time to try his hand at this summoning thing. He’s got all those summoning papers and all this time, he might as well give it a shot. For the whole day, up until he goes back up to his room an hour before midnight, Johnny feels rather calm and collected. But when he sits down on his floor, the boards creaking underneath him and the light sound of rain outside his window, he decides it’s time to get nervous.

What if he summons a bad demon? Or what if he summons a not-demon demon that's living wherever demons live and is actually some awful feral dog or something? He's sure there are measures against that sort of thing.

Johnny pores over the book, eyes peeled open to read every single line and look at every drawing to ensure he doesn't get a single thing wrong. Not that he was going to be careless at any point, but he truly cannot afford to be.

He grabs the needle, flipping it around so he holds the sharp end, and digs it into the candle, scribing roman numerals into the side. With the matches he pilfered from Hyuck, he lights the candles in order, dripping a small amount of wax onto the ground to keep them upright and hopes he wrote the numbers low enough that he can do everything before the candles melt that much.

The sigil is drawn in white chalk- such a pedestrian thing in Johnny's opinion- and he spaces the candles evenly around the circle in six places. He carefully rips a summoning paper from the book, drawing a matching sigil in black chalk. Blowing the dust off, he folds it in half, then half again, leaving it in the middle of the seal.

Johnny grabs the needle, holding it over his finger and hesitating. Should he really be doing this? He’s already this far, he might as well right- what’s the worst that could happen? He could summon a demon which is exactly his endpoint. Ha.

In a quick movement, he pricks his finger, smearing what little blood comes out onto the summoning paper. Hopefully it's enough- hopefully he can do the rest with enough conviction that it won't notice he has no ounce of magic in him. Scared it isn’t enough, he milks his finger a little to get another bead of blood to rub onto the sheet.

“Please work,” Johnny half-begs. "I really don't want to try again." Pulling the book closer, he starts reciting the texts in an even tone, eyes occasionally flickering up to see if anything is happening.

At the second to last line, the candles blow out completely and his lamp shutters off, leaving Johnny in nervous darkness. He squints to finish the incantation, half memorized from his earlier diligence of reading and rereading so he doesn’t fuck it up. When the last syllable leaves his lips, he hears tinkling in his ears like wind chimes for a split second, then his ears just ring. He’s really trying to keep his eyes open because it seems like it’s working, but then he feels the air in the room get heavy and something in the back of his mind tells him to close his eyes so he does.

Only a second later, he opens them again and watches the summoning paper catch flame, burning blue nearly to his ceiling before cutting off abruptly. Johnny holds his breath in the silence and stillness that follows. The candles relight themselves in number order, blazing once they’re all relit to show a shadow in the middle of the sigil. His one lamp turns back on and he sees a whole boy, with a tail and horns and everything in his room.

That could’ve been so bad.

“Holy shit.”

“Uh, yeah,” the demon offers back. “Is- why am I here? Did I get summoned?”

"I actually did it. Oh my god," Johnny breathes. His hand shake nearly violently as he grabs his phone to text Hyuck to come upstairs. "No way."

"Hel-lo?"

"Are you really a demon? Why are your horns so small?" Johnny asks. Rightfully so, the demon looks offended.

"Real rich coming from Colossus over here, answering my questions with questions," the demon snips, looking Johnny up and down. "Only legion leaders have big horns and only weaker demons can be summoned by humans. Don’t you learn this in school or something?"

Before he can apologize, Hyuck comes rumbling up the stairs and throws open Johnny’s door, half shouting, “Did you summon one? Did you get it?”

"Great, there's another."

He looks at the demon that sits on top of the sigil, eyes glittering but sharp and looking otherwise harmless. Perhaps he is incredibly powerful and Johnny would never know because this isn’t his forte. Hyuck’s jaw drops and he turns to let out a very audible exhale before turning back around to face the both of them, his smile barely suppressed on his face.

“Who is your father?” he asks, trying to look at what sigil the demon was sitting on.

“Orias.”

“Nice!” Johnny looks up nervously at Hyuck. “Can I touch you?”

“Good nice or bad nice?” Johnny asks.

Hyuck ignores him briefly, moving to kneel in front of the demon and touch a fingertip to their leg. The demon in question seems not to mind, letting the other look at him like a lab project as he leans on his hands and stares right back. Johnny kind of wants them to speak again, they had a nice voice.

“Orias teaches stuff like star reading, planetary houses. Horoscopes for demons.”

“So he’s useless.”

With a slow look up at the demon’s face, Hyuck very cautiously says, “Pretty much.” When there’s no further reaction, he sits back.

“Can you tell me about you?”

“Nope,” the demon replies, popping the ‘p’.

“Well I tried.” Hyuck gets up from the floor, slapping his thighs. “Tell me how it goes.”

Once the door closes to Johnny's room, he's left inside with a whole demon who sits in silence with him. He doesn't know what to say, doesn't even know if he's allowed to make eye contact without giving himself to eternal damnation- if that was a thing.

"Um. So what's your name?"

Surprisingly, they answer, "You're free to call me Mark."

"That's very human."

"What? Thought my name was Sahaquiel?" Johnny fails to answer fast enough, and Mark rolls his eyes. "Do you have a request or something? People don't normally summon demons for fun."

Oof. What's he even supposed to say when he kinda did summon one for fun. (Not fun, he was dared. It was Hyuck's fault.) Johnny pretends to be absorbed in thinking, looking around his room and eventually offering, “Uh… I haven’t thought of one yet.”

“You’re lying, I can sense it.”

Great, he summoned a demon who can tell if he’s lying. He should’ve just taken the W while he had it. “It was a dare, just to see if I could. By that other guy. And I can so… win?”

“There's a general rule against doing unadvisable things you don't know the outcome of; you should put that into practice some time. Send me back.”

"Ha ha, no can do." Mark looks so confused so Johnny holds up the finger that got pricked, showing a tiny blood spot. “Don’t know if you can tell but I’m not a mage at all.”

“You’re fucking kidding me.”

In the beginning, living with Mark wasn’t much of an adjustment, all things considered. Sure, he’s a little snippy and causes problems on purpose, but he’s a demon and Johnny won’t fault him for that. Isn’t the demon on your shoulder supposed to be a little bad?

After a few weeks, Mark still hasn’t left because Johnny hasn't thought up a good enough request to warrant trading his soul or whatever it is demons will do. And then Mark decides to make more problems because “I’m _bored_ Johnny, send me back.”

It started with small things like stealing money from Johnny’s wallet and throwing it under his bed, or leaving the sink running for far longer than necessary. Then, Mark was waking Johnny in the middle of the night just to wake him, using his tail to sweep things off the countertop, straight up tossing grains of rice through the door after Johnny bought a new lock for it so Mark couldn’t get in- which was pointless anyway because Mark could teleport himself right into Johnny’s room.

Speaking of which, Mark has utilized his ability to move across spaces in the blink of an eye incredibly unsparingly. Any time Mark can pop in front of him to scare him, he would. Johnny will either stumble back in surprise or accidentally bump into him, and with how much smaller Mark is, constitutes a full body bump where Mark will disappear and reappear again a few feet further back.

To be fair, Mark's nuisances aren't anything all too bad because he doesn't do it all the time. But he does it enough to get Johnny damn heated about it.

Hyuck, though he spent a lot of time at Taeil's place, was never subject to any of Mark's aggressions. In fact, Mark seemingly went out of his way to ensure Hyuck wouldn't be inconvenienced in any manner, which gives Johnny such levels of agita he's almost certain Mark will kill him indirectly.

How did Hyuck become his friend when Johnny was the one who summoned him?

It's not like Johnny isn't making an effort. Well, it's not like Mark isn't accepting it either. In the times the day not spent asking Johnny to send him back, Mark is almost sane. More and more of the day has morphed into Mark settling down for hours, seemingly accepting that he’ll need to stick around for a while. Will hold actual conversations with Johnny until he declares he's bored and disappears, and causes some mischief for him to find later. Again, something otherwise harmless but still annoying.

"What do I do?" Johnny bemoans, cheek smushed on the counter as Hyuck drinks his coffee. He's trying to be quiet because Mark has monopolized his bed after Johnny woke up and he needs to hear if any floorboards start creaking. "I'm not skilled enough to send him back, he's only annoying enough to be almost intolerable, can't lie around him, can't sleep in my own bed."

"Can't lie?"

"Yeah, he said he can sense it. Don't you learn this?"

Hyuck laughs loudly. "I can't believe you let him play you this long. Only children of Shax can tell if someone is lying to them, and even then it depends on how long they've been taught."

“That’s not him?”

“Hmm, considering what I just said, I’d have to say no.” Johnny bangs his forehead against the marble.

The culmination of all his ire peaked after coming back from getting groceries and watching water roll out from under the door to take the stairs. Unusual, but he’s not considering it too hard. Really, a lot of the weird wetness of his entire floor is not cause for concern because it’s not his problem. He even doesn't think much of the squeak of his shoes when he enters his place, until he looks up.

"Why are you wet?" Johnny asks, taking off his shoes and stepping right into a puddle of water.

He closes his eyes in frustration, opening them to still see Mark, lounging casually on his couch, hair and clothes soaked. Wet marks dot the fabric and a trail of water leads from where he is to where Mark sits, dripping. His tail swings languidly behind him.

"You do a really bad job at keeping me entertained," Mark says, staring forward at the television that plays some midday talk show.

"Didn't know I had to, really. Why are you wet?"

"Was burning some things in a hallway and set off the sprinklers."

" _Why_?"

"Because you do a bad job at keeping me entertained. Johnny," Mark grits out, fisting his hands beside him.

Johnny kisses his teeth. "God, do you know how much trouble I’m going to get in? Now I gotta stay behind like a keeper?"

" _You_ summoned _me_."

"And _you_ can send yourself back, so why haven't you?" Johnny isn't intentionally trying to piss Mark off, but his couch and floor are wet and he'll probably get an eviction notice if every time Mark was bored, he went and caused trouble. Can Taeyong exorcise demons or is it too soon to ask?

With a huff, Mark gets up off the couch to go into the kitchen, filling a glass of water from the tap and letting it run over for no reason. Johnny stupidly watches him, unsure of what he'll do next considering Mark is a demon and he could logically do anything with just a glass of water. He's a little nervous, and mostly irate.

Mark walks back into the living room and takes a sip of water from the brimming cup, not breaking eye contact with Johnny. Still looking, he dumps nearly the full glass right onto the fabric cushions.

"Are you literally insane?" Johnny snaps, rushing to grab the glass from Mark's hand.

He doesn't make it in time and watches Mark draw his arm back and smash the glass right onto the hardwood floor, sending a million and one sharp pieces scuttling across the living room. Johnny swipes his arm out to try to grab Mark, but Mark has already disappeared from his apartment- from the whole damn city probably.

Johnny heaves the largest sigh known to mankind and goes to the bathroom to grab a towel. He doesn’t blame Mark for going stir crazy nor does he blame him for his attitude- the kid (demon baby?) just wants to go back and Johnny can’t even help him with that. If Hyuck were able to do it, he would ask, and yet there’s some weird clause written in every witch handbook that said only summoners can send back their summonee, unless they’re exorcised. And Johnny doesn’t really want to exorcise Mark.

Where would Mark even be now anyway? It’s not like he tells Johnny where he disappears to- one time he was napping under the kitchen bar in the dark. He’s actually never left the apartment before ever, meaning he could be just about anywhere. He could be right outside the door, but Johnny holds himself back from going to check, just to let Mark cool down from his tantrum.

He throws the towel onto the wet cushion, adding a random book and some other heavy things on top in hopes of capillary actioning the water into the towel. Tiptoeing around the living room, he moves to the kitchen to get a broom and clean up all the glass shards.

Maybe Mark is like a cat and he’ll just show up again through an open window once Johnny is gone. He acts just like one: breaks things, will step on your stuff even when you’re in the middle of working on it, hides all the time. The thought gets cemented into his mind, so after he’s finished sweeping up what he can of the glass, Johnny grabs a jacket and leaves.

He doesn’t return for a while, only because he wants to go back and see Mark there, wants to see him lazing under his sheets or sitting on the kitchen counter eating the canned whip cream- his favorite thing in all of their fridge.

And when he does get back, he very slowly opens the door and sees Mark sitting with his back to him, the glass he missed sweeping earlier between his legs like dice. His tail is wrapped around himself and his horns are only peeking out slightly from under his messy hair.

“Where’d you go?” Johnny asks. He’s not even going to try to hide the concern in his voice. “Hey, give me that. You’ll cut yourself.”

Mark doesn’t look up from his place on the floor, playing around with the glass bits as he looks up at Johnny. Like an actual psychopath, Mark puts it in his mouth instead of handing it over to him. The hand he was holding out falls with a sigh.

“Alright, I know you don’t want to be here, but _I_ don’t want you breaking my plates or setting off sprinklers. ‘Cause that’s kind of annoying, and not the way to deal with… this.” He takes a seat on the couch next to Mark, right on top of the wet towel. Mark must’ve taken off the books at some point, and he can see Mark’s scoff of laughter as he feels the water soak into his jeans. “Why haven’t you just left?”

“Like I haven’t tried? I can’t…” Mark says, trailing off. The glass doesn't come out of his mouth. Johnny tries not to focus too hard on that.

“Can’t?”

"I'm not strong enough to bring myself back," Mark says, voice nearly pitching to a frustrated whine. “You summoned a baby demon who studies the stars, for fucks sake. I don’t know how you did it but you’re stronger than me, and now that I’m gone from Orias, I can’t get stronger.”

“Oh… damn. Sorry,” Johnny offers lamely. “Can I-”

“No you cannot.”

“Okay, then can I ask if you are stuck here if you could stop breaking my stuff, at least.”

"Do you think I _asked_ to be brought here by some noob who doesn't even have any magic blood? You think I want to be stuck here? Can’t even go outside because of my tail or my horns or anything."

Johnny feels a little hurt by Mark's words. "What's waiting for you back there that you hate here so much?"

"Nothing! I don't have anything there, but I also don't have anything here, and I'd much rather be somewhere I know than somewhere I don't, Johnny."

"You have me?" Johnny adds weakly. “One is better than none."

Mark scoffs, running a hand through his hair. "Sure. I know you wanted me gone as much as I wanted to be gone. It's okay."

"I _did_ , but then I realized you were just like a house pet. A really destructive house pet," Johnny insists. "Stay here until the end of the month. And if you still hate it, I'll try super hard to send you back. Promise."

He holds out his pinky to Mark, who only pulls a face. “Why are you doing that?”

“It’s a pinky promise. Pinky swe- never mind. Just know that I mean it.”

With a raise of his eyebrows, Mark turns back to his glass pieces, gathering them in his hand and shaking to hear them clink. He drops all but one back onto the ground, palming it as he moves closer to Johnny and holds his hand out.

No hesitation, Johnny shakes Mark’s hand and feels the bite of glass into his skin. He feels lame when he winces and sees Mark has nearly no reaction to it. Blood rolls to the side of his hand and pools with Mark’s, a drop slipping from between onto the floor. Mark pulls his hand away with a grin, and Johnny sees the cut on Mark’s own palm stitch itself back together, a pale scar in its place.

“Now you can’t not mean it,” Mark says, eyes glittering. “One _is_ better than none. Also-” Mark opens his mouth and pulls out the shard Johnny thought he swallowed from under his tongue, dropping it onto Johnny’s still bleeding hand. “For you.”

Exactly like a cat.

**Author's Note:**

> [twt](https://twitter.com/ivyclvb)


End file.
